Improved basket for berries



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

S. It. VVIIJMO'I, OF BROOKLYN, NEV YORK.

IMPROVED BASKET AFOR` BERRIES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 32,324, dated May 14, 1861.

To all whom it may concern/r Beit known that I, S. R. WILMOT, of Brooklyn, in the county of Kings and State of New York, have invented a new and Improved Basket for Strawberries and similar Fruit, and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the annexed drawings, making a part of this specification, in which- Figure l is an elevation of` my invention; Fig.` 2, a plan or top View ot' the same; Fig. 3, a view of a sheet-metal plate `cnt by dies to form the body of the basket.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the several iigures.

rlhis invention relates to an improved basket, such as is used for conveying strawberries and similar fruit to market, and in which they are generally sold. y

The object of the invention is to obtain a cheap and at the same time a more durable basket than those constructed of wood splints in the usual way, and which will admit of being stowed away more compactly both when illed and empty.

The invention consists in constructing the body of the basket of thin sheet metal cut by means of suitable dies. to form ribs or splints, and bending the same at their lower ends, so that they will, in connection with circular disks, form the bottom of the basket, the top of the basket being provided with a swinging or pail handle, and all arranged as hereinafter described. i

To enable those skilled in the art to fully nnderstand and construct my invention, I will proceed to describe it.

The body and chiefportion of the bottom of the basket is constructed by striking out from 4a sheet-metal plate a comb-shaped strip, A, as shown in Fig. 3.

Y Two of these strips are cut from the same plate, the ribs ct of one plate forming the spaces for the other, so' that no -portion of the plate is lost or unappropriated.

rIhese strips A A are cut by means ofa suitable die, rthe work being done at one operation. These strips A A form each a basket, and the lower parts of the ribs or splints are B is a circular plate or disk, the edge of which is swaged toV form a recess,.a.*, at its under side to receive the bent ends b of the lower parts of the ribs a, and the disk B is secured by an eyelct, c, to a plate or disk, C, which is about of the same diameter as disk B, and keepsthe ends b of the ribs a in the recess a* of the disk B. Thus the bottom of the basket is formed.

To the upper end of the basket the handle D is attached. This handle is formed of wire bent in bow form, and having its end bent to form journals d, which are tted in the rim of the basket.' (See Fig. l.)

From the above description it will be seen that empty baskets may be stowed away, one inside the other, as the handles D are allowed to fall over on the edges of the rims, and do not, therefore, offer any obstruction to the tting of the baskets one within the other, as is the case with the rigid handles in the ordinary splint baskets.

The upper edge of the basket may be turned over to form a rim, as shown at e, as shown in Fig. l, and the ribs a may, if desired or necessary, be swaged in iluted form to give additional strength.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

A basket for berries `constructed of sheetmetal strips or plates cut and bent in the form as shown, and used in connection with the plates or disks B C, all arranged, as shown, to form a new and improved article of manufacture, for the purpose specified.

' S. It. WILMOT. Witnesses:

D. W. KTssAM, M. M. LIVINGSTON. 

